Slotkin's Motives

Some folks .. even on the right had a concern with Mike Roger’s former National Security influence and connections. To…

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Michigan Politics

2018 Michigan State Senate Elections

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Cross-posted at The Western Right, Right Michigan, and RRH Elections.

All 38 seats in the Michigan Senate are up for election in 2014.  Republicans currently have a 27-11 supermajority, and have controlled the senate since 1983.  Republican control of the state senate has prevented democrats from complete control of Michigan’s government in some years, and stopped a lot of bad things from being passed.

Fortunately for Republicans, the Michigan state senate is up only in midterms, which usually favor Republicans much more than presidential years.  Republicans had a good year in 2014, picking up one state senate seat, following four pickups in 2010.

The 2010 redistricting produced a map that was moderately pro-Republican, while complying with all relevant laws.

Michigan Redistricting: Official Republican State Senate Map Released
Michigan Redistricting: Republican State Senate Map Passed

There are 26 open seats due to term-limits, 7 D and 19 R.  All current state senators are former state representatives except three (Colbeck, Conyers, Hertel).  This pattern held in the past, and most credible candidates this time are current or former state reps.

For the past few years, the state senate has been more moderate than the state house.  This cycle, there are several ideologically split Republican primaries that will determine how conservative the state senate will be next year. These will be in districts 12, 21, 24, 26, 30, 31, 34, and 35.

I have included election data for the 2014 state senate election, and McCain (2008), Romney (2012), and Trump (2016) results in each district.  More data is available from Republican Michigander and RRH Elections.

Republican Michigander district profiles (see sidebar)
RRH Michigan Senate Data File
Michigan State Senate 2018 Preview (all up in 2018)

The McCain numbers look terrible for Republicans because he collapsed after publicly pulling out of Michigan.  The largest McCain percentage in any Michigan state senate district won by a democrat in the past twelve years is 46.2% in (old) district 31.

Here is a breakdown of the individual races.  State reps years in office are listed after their names, with P meaning present.

2018 Candidate List (Michigan Secretary of State)

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, Conservative News, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion

Cultural Equivalence?

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What if you have an opinion that institutionalized misogyny is maybe not such a great thing?  Does even the question make you a bigot?

What if the centerpiece of my ‘religion’ was not a resurrected son-of-God who died in excruciating pain for all of our hatred, shame, and imperfections manifested in misdeeds.  But instead a warlord who to achieve power, subjugated other men, women, children, all in the name of (presumably) the same God.

What if that latter ‘religion’ was not one of proselytizing through love but through violent means, extortion, blackmail, lies and subterfuge.  What if it called for honor killings, female mutilation, death for apostasy, ransom, and purposeful deceit to advance it’s growth.

What if you do not have the intellectual ability to recognize a difference between spiritually uplifting beliefs, and those that foment acts of cowardice and terror quite literally DAILY.

Are these not legitimate questions?

Sadly we have those who in their political aspirations are too fearful to ask them.  The few who do, become targets of the purposefully stupid or intellectually dishonest in media, and are quickly branded as bigots and intolerant.

Go figure.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans, Research & Analysis, Roads

I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody’s part!

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Local leaders aren’t warming up you your schemes. The scuttlebutt is that focus group testing isn’t looking too good either (not having a real plan with real numbers didn‘t help). Lately, you have enlisted local business “leaders” to help in promoting your cockamamie strategy, but wouldn’t you know it, they aren’t getting that much traction either.

So, who are these people and why are they employing the last refuge for desperate men?

Here’s a hint: All the more reason to hold onto your wallet a little more tightly around Detroit.

{I’ll tell you who they are below the fold}

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Milton Friedman For Governor

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Today’s economists aren’t.

I mean they aren’t around anymore. Not since November 2006 anyhow.  That was when Milton Friedman took his last breath.

No one understood markets based on how people respond to incentive like Milton Friedman.  While sympathetic to our desire to do good for others, he recognized the nature of how we prioritize (en mass) when making spending decisions.

The first time I heard the “four ways to spend money” was not Friedman however.  It was during a presentation on health care options for Michigan by Pat Colbeck.  He wasn’t a candidate for Governor at that time, but he was clearly advocating a sensible approach on how we pay for our health care needs.  Part of it is returning the incentive to those who will watch more closely how well the money is spent to achieve the best results and at lowest cost.

A recent newsletter from the Mackinac center reminded me of this, which is the way Colbeck had put it a year and a half ago.

There only four ways to spend money.

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Elections, Republicans

Trump Rally – Macomb County, April 28th

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Quick Note: Despite some serious misgivings over recent actions, at the behest of a friend of mine, I’ll be passing this along for the benefit of other readers here at RightMI.

President Trump will be in Macomb County for a rally on Saturday, April 28th at 7:00pm. The political rally will take place at the Total Sports Park, located at 65665 Powell Road in Washington (30 Mile Road EAST of M-53).

Tickets will be available through President Trump’s campaign site located through this link. There will be a limit of two tickets per person while they last.

The topic of the rally had not been announced as of the time of this post.

This would be a good place to start!!!

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Wayne Schmidt Has Challenger In The 37th District

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Good.

One of the best parts of any election season is the opportunity for the candidates to argue that they are best equipped to represent a particular set of ideas and philosophy.   When incumbency is used to mask what might be a crappy candidate, we all lose.

Yesterday, a challenger has filed to face the Red light camera king in the Northern Michigan district.

Republican activist Jim Gurr is not sitting this cycle out, and is not going to let the man who would have all property owned by government have a free shot.  From his site:

Our current State Senator serves many masters, but unfortunately not the voters in the 37th State Senate District. This is unfortunate, and sadly typical of those who hold power of office to be more important than the needs of the people they serve.

And lists a number of grievances.

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2018 Michigan Gubernatorial Race, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Government Incompetence, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans, Research & Analysis, Roads

The song remains the same. (Updated)

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Continuing with the “unofficial” theme this week, local officials have decided to strike while the iron is hot and use a tired old ploy to fix a problem that really should never have been a problem in the first place had elected officials done their jobs, looked at the problem as a whole and fixed the problem at the source rather than only reacting to the symptoms.

So what are they doing now?

{Details below the fold}

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Republicans

Pink Floyd Gruel

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Swamp rats be swamp rats.

Betsy DeVos tries to pare down the behemoth, and Congress says – “you’ll eat yer meat! how can you have any pudding if you don’t eat yer meat!”  As the song says..  “We don’t need no education [department]”

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